fix(tui): raise streaming watchdog threshold to 120s and suppress false-positive warning

Joseph Pruitt · Joseph Pruitt · commit 0eba92010fe1 · 2026-04-19T12:52:47.000-04:00
The TUI streaming watchdog was set to 30 seconds, which triggers
false-positive 'no stream updates' warnings during healthy long-running
agent turns (tool calls, sub-agent work, code generation, browser
automation). The alarming message ('backend may have dropped this run')
caused unnecessary user confusion.

Changes:
- Raise DEFAULT_STREAMING_WATCHDOG_MS from 30s to 120s
- Suppress the user-visible chatLog.addSystem() warning
- Internal reset behavior is fully preserved (activeChatRunId cleared,
  activityStatus set to idle, render requested)
- The override context.streamingWatchdogMs still works for custom values
- Update tests to match suppressed message behavior
diff --git a/src/tui/tui-event-handlers.test.ts b/src/tui/tui-event-handlers.test.ts
@@ -721,7 +721,8 @@ describe("tui-event-handlers: streaming watchdog", () => {
 
     expect(setActivityStatus).toHaveBeenLastCalledWith("idle");
     expect(state.activeChatRunId).toBeNull();
-    expect(chatLog.addSystem).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.stringContaining("streaming watchdog"));
+    /* Message is now suppressed — only the internal reset fires */
+    expect(chatLog.addSystem).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
 
     handlers.dispose?.();
   });
@@ -847,7 +848,8 @@ describe("tui-event-handlers: streaming watchdog", () => {
 
     expect(setActivityStatus).toHaveBeenLastCalledWith("idle");
     expect(state.activeChatRunId).toBeNull();
-    expect(chatLog.addSystem).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(2);
+    /* Messages are now suppressed — only the internal reset fires */
+    expect(chatLog.addSystem).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
 
     handlers.dispose?.();
   });
diff --git a/src/tui/tui-event-handlers.ts b/src/tui/tui-event-handlers.ts
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ type EventHandlerContext = {
   streamingWatchdogMs?: number;
 };
 
-const DEFAULT_STREAMING_WATCHDOG_MS = 30_000;
+const DEFAULT_STREAMING_WATCHDOG_MS = 120_000;
 
 export function createEventHandlers(context: EventHandlerContext) {
   const {
@@ -103,11 +103,11 @@ export function createEventHandlers(context: EventHandlerContext) {
       streamingWatchdogRunId = null;
       state.activeChatRunId = null;
       setActivityStatus("idle");
-      chatLog.addSystem(
-        `streaming watchdog: no stream updates for ${Math.round(
-          streamingWatchdogMs / 1000,
-        )}s; resetting status. The backend may have dropped this run silently — send a new message to resync.`,
-      );
+      /* Watchdog fires silently — the internal reset (clearing activeChatRunId,
+         setting status idle) still happens, but the user-visible warning is
+         suppressed to avoid false-positive noise during long-running agent
+         turns (tool calls, sub-agent work, code generation).  The user can
+         always send a new message to resync if something is truly stuck. */
       tui.requestRender();
     }, streamingWatchdogMs);
     const maybeUnref = (streamingWatchdogTimer as { unref?: () => void }).unref;
